Rhetorical Analysis Of Doing Nothing Is Something By Anna Quindlen

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In the essay “Doing Nothing is Something,” Pulitzer prize winner Anna Quindlen states that today’s American children are just as “overscheduled” as the adults. Summer is a time for relaxation and finding yourself. However, Quindlen claims that parents do not give their children time for boredom. They are constantly scheduled with sports teams, summer camps, band camps, and etcetera. This in turn deprives children from having quality alone time and self-discovery. Quindlen offers a lot of rhetorical appeals throughout her essay. She shows her credibility, provides examples, and tugs at your heart strings with a sense of nostalgia. One of the first rhetorical appeals Quindlen uses is ethos. Ethos is a persuasive method to show the integrity and authority of the author. It allows Quindlen to be …show more content…

Logos is the reader’s sense of logic. This can be done with statistics, logical schema, quotes, or observations. “I don’t believe you can write poetry, or compose music, or become an actor without downtime, and plenty of it…” explains the creative process of imaginative people. Quindlen is a writer and uses her own personal experience to say that she had alone time when she was younger, which helped her develop into an award winning author. She mentions a website called “familylife1st.org” (89). It is evidence that she has researched her topic and it is a verifiable source. In paragraph six, Quindlen reports “There is also ample psychological research suggesting that what we might call “doing nothing” is when human beings actually do their best thinking…” (90). She provides examples proving that kids need more time to themselves, “…a global Right to Play Movement,” and “A study by the University of Michigan quantified the downtime deficit…” (90). As a result of including all the research and examples, Quindlen enhances her argument for the children and the “downtime” they need to strive as an innovative human

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